1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chemical disinfection and sanitizing and, more particularly, to the use of quaternary ammonium compounds and iodine for the same.
2. Description of the Background
The purpose of disinfection is to reduce microbial contamination to such a level that an infective dose is not liable or capable of reaching a susceptible site or patient. Presently there are several combinations of quaternary ammonium compounds that can accomplish this within strict limitations based upon their physical chemistries. However, the existing combinations cannot achieve this task in all types of situations. For example, these existing formulations are limited based upon their dilution with hard water, that is water with more than 400 ppm of carbonates in it. This is because quaternary ammonium compounds are inactivated by hard water. Quaternary ammonium compounds are inhibitory to vegetative organisms and fungii but are not tuberculocidal or sporicidal. Dual quat formulations have improved biocidal activity, stronger detergency and a low level of toxicity however they have not solved the the environmental problem of hard water and proteinaceous soilage that reduces or inhibits their activity. What is required was a solution to reduce the hard water problem and improve the biocidal activity while still maintaining a low level of toxicity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,635 issued Jan. 8, 1991, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,875 issued Feb. 8, 1994, solved the hard water problem and improved but did not effectively solve the biocidal activity, and due to the phenolics increased the toxicity problem.
Iodine is one of the most effective antimicrobial agents known. It is essentially bactericidal, dilutions possessing bacteriostatic and bactericidal action being practically identical. Iodine is active against a broad series of organisms including TB, pathogenic fungii, viruses of both lipophilic and hydrophilic types. Although effective as an antiseptic wash and irrigant over a wide pH range it is best at an acid pH.
It would be greatly advantageous to provide a non-toxic iodine constituent as an effective antimicrobial agent in a dual-quat formulation.